The Present Disclosure relates, generally, to a card connector, and more particularly, to a card connector that can rapidly remove the heat generated by the card with a simple construction, a small size, easy manufacturing and low cost. Additionally, the card connector should be able to securely hold the card with a simple construction, a small size, easy manufacturing, low cost and excellent reliability.
Conventional electronic devices are generally provided with a card connector in order to use various memory cards. Further, conventional card connectors generally have a push/push structure from a perspective of easy handling, so as to press-in a memory card to insert and remove the card. An example is illustrated at Japanese Patent Application No. 2009-146701, the content of which is fully incorporated in its entirety herein.
FIG. 11 illustrates a conventional card connector, in which 811 is a housing for a card connector composed of an insulating material, and is provided with a plurality of connecting terminals 851 composed of metal. Further, 861 is a card connector shell composed of a metallic sheet, and which is mounted on the upper side of the housing 811. Furthermore, a memory card 901 is inserted between the shell 861 and the housing 811, and contacts the connecting terminal 851 that corresponds to a contact pad 951 of the memory card 901.
In the example illustrated, the card connector is of a push/push type which has a guide mechanism to eject the memory card 901. The guide mechanism is provided with a slide member 821 engaged with the memory card 901 such that it slides with the memory card 901, and also a coil spring 881 that biases the slide member 821 in the direction of ejecting the memory card 901.
Moreover, a cam groove of the heart cam mechanism is formed on the upper surface of the slide member 821, and one end of a pin member 871 of the heart cam mechanism is engaged with the cam groove. In addition, the pin member 871 is held by being biased downward from the top by a leaf spring 865 of the shell 861. Further, the slide member 821 is provided with a lever 822, where an engaging part 823 is engaged with an engaging recess part 912 of the memory card 901.
When the memory card 901 is pushed into the housing 811, the memory card 901 is pressed in the inward direction (upper right direction in the drawing) of the housing 811. Subsequently, the engaging recess part 912 of the memory card 901 is engaged with the engaging part 823 of the lever 822 of the slide member 821, and the slide member 821 resists the repulsive force of the coil spring 881 and moves in the inward direction of the housing 811 with the memory card 901. Then, when the slide member 821 stops due to one end of the pin member 871 being latched to the cam groove of the heart cam mechanism by an operation of the heart cam mechanism, the memory card 901 also stops in an inserted state within the housing 811.
When the memory card 901 is removed from the housing 811, the state where one end of the pin member 871 is latched to the cam groove of the heart cam mechanism is released by being pushed. Accordingly, the slide member 821 is freed and moves in the near side direction (left lower direction in the drawing) with the memory card 901 due to the force exhibited by the coil spring 881 so that the memory card 901 is ejected from the housing 811.
However, strategies for heat dissipation have not been sufficiently implemented in conventional card connectors. In recent years, in conjunction with smaller electronic devices with higher performance, efforts have been made to reduce the size of the memory card 901 together with increasing the capacity of the memory card 901 and increasing the speed of the transfer rate for the input and output of data by the memory card 901. Therefore, because the component mounting density has increased within electronic devices thereby reducing open spaces, regardless of the increase in heat generated by the memory card 901, ventilation conditions around the card connector have worsened, thereby reducing the ability for heat dissipation and thus the temperature of the memory card 901 increases. Accordingly, although the temperature increase can be prevented in the memory card 901 by arranging a cooling device, such would require increasing the size of the electronic device as well as the cost.